This invention relates generally to wire cutting apparatus and is more particularly directed to an arrangement for preventing the displacement of a severed wire stub from a wire cutting pliers until the pliers are released and allowed to assume the open configuration.
The manufacture and repair of electronic and electrical apparatus frequently requires the cutting of a small section of wire from a larger piece. This frequently results in the small section of wire, or wire stub, flying through the air at a rapid speed and landing a considerable distance from the location where the wire is cut. This not only presents a hazard to the person cutting the wire and co-workers in the immediate vicinity, but also creates a potential hazard to the electrical equipment being manufactured or repaired in the form of an undesired electrical connection or short circuit. In addition, the flying piece of wire may create a mechanical hazard to machinery in the vicinity of where the wire is cut.
The prior art discloses various approaches for preventing the displacement of a severed wire stub from the cutting pliers. To date, these prior approaches have generally been overly complicated and expensive, and thus not commercially attractive. For example, the wire retaining attachment to the cutting pliers may be comprised of a pair of wire engaging stuctures or a single wire engaging member having a complex shape which is difficult and expensive to fabricate. In addition, the wire engaging member, or members, may be secured to the cutting pliers by means of one or more screws which further complicates the manufacture and assembly of the pliers and thus increases its cost. Often the pliers must be of special design in order to accept a particular wire retainer. Thus, such a retainer would not be attachable to cutting pliers already in use. Finally, prior art wire retaining arrangements in wire cutting pliers have been generally cumbersome to use in that they restrict the user's view of the exact location where the wire is being severed and thus introduce a degree of inaccuracy in the wire cutting process.
The present invention is intended to overcome the aforementioned limitations of the prior art by providing a unitary, resilient, clip-like wire stub retainer and handle opening spring for a wire cutting pliers which prevents a severed wire stub from flying away from the pliers during the wire cutting operation until the cutting pliers are released and which biases the cutting pliers to the open configuration.